Category Archives: Europe

Brexit: DUP and ERG say they cannot support May as MPs debate deal – Politics live

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PM puts new plan to Commons as Geoffrey Cox says legal risk over backstop ‘remains unchanged’

Boris Johnson, the Brexiter former foreign secretary, is speaking in the debate now. He says he had hoped that the EU would make the wholly reasonable changes the UK wanted. But the EU refused to do that.

Like Adam and Eve, they sowed a fig leaf that failed to cover the embarrassment of the UK, he says.

This deal has now reached the end of the road. If it is rejected tonight, I hope that it will be put to bed.

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Chickens ‘teamed up to kill fox’ at Brittany farming school

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‘There was a herd instinct and they attacked him with their beaks,’ says head of farming

Chickens in a poultry farm in northeast France are suspected of killing a fox that tried to sneak into their coop.

The fox is thought to have entered the henhouse at an agricultural school at dusk last week and become trapped inside by light-controlled automatic hatch doors that close when the sun goes down.

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Greece defies church with step towards first crematorium

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Cemeteries are overcrowded and Greeks’ nearest option for cremation is Bulgaria

Greece has moved a step closer to opening its first crematorium, passing a decree that paves the way for a facility to be built in Athens despite persistent criticism from the Orthodox church.

The prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, described the measure as “one of the most important and necessary reforms”, and the city’s mayor, Giorgos Kaminis, said it was a “landmark step”.

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May wins ‘improved’ Brexit deal but it may not be enough for MPs

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British PM secures ‘legally binding changes’ in Strasbourg talks with Jean-Claude Juncker

Theresa May has called for MPs to “come together” to back her deal after claiming to have secured the legally binding changes parliament wanted to ensure the EU cannot trap the UK in the Irish backstop and a permanent customs union.

But within minutes of the start of a late-night joint press conference in Strasbourg, those words rang hollow, as Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, conceded the EU had not agreed to the prime minister’s central demand.

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Italian protests over men cleared of rape because woman was ‘too masculine’

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Judges said alleged victim’s story was not credible enough because she was unattractive

About 200 people protested outside a court of appeal in the Italian city of Ancona after it was revealed that two men were cleared of rape charges partly because the alleged victim looked “too masculine” to be a target of attraction.

The reasons behind the 2017 ruling came to light only on Friday, when Italy’s highest appeal court scrapped the lower court’s verdict and ordered a retrial.

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Halal holiday bookings soar as Muslims opt for the Med

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Tourism industry wakes up to the rapidly growing earning potential of the Islamic economy

It’s a magnet for sun-deprived tourists from northern Europe, drawn to its long sandy beaches, pretty coves and ancient sites. Along Turkey’s Turquoise Coast, holidaymakers down exotic cocktails and ice-cold beers between dips in the sparkling Mediterranean and snoozing on the sun-lounger.

But an increasing number of hotels in and around Antalya are turning away from the traditional resort fare of booze and bare flesh in order to attract a new and growing clientele: Muslim tourists.

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Theresa May battles to save Brexit deal ahead of Commons vote

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Eurosceptics could move against the PM if Commons defeat leads to Brexit delay

Theresa May was battling on Sunday night to save her Brexit deal and prolong her premiership, amid signs Eurosceptics could move against her if there is a delay to leaving the EU.

The prime minister’s position looked precarious as she was unable to announce any progress in talks with the EU less than 48 hours before her House of Commons vote on the deal.

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Woman hired Sicilian mafia hitmen to kill ex-lover, say police

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Alleged killers and woman, 64, arrested after discovery of man’s body in cement wall

A 64-year-old woman allegedly hired four Sicilian mafia henchmen to murder her ex-lover who had stolen her jewels, according to police. The killers, all Sicilians, carried out their order by walling the man in cement while he was still alive.

Related: Is this the end for the Sicilian mafia?

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Bodies of Tom Ballard and Daniele Nardi found in Himalayas

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Men went missing almost a fortnight ago while ascending mountain in Pakistan

The bodies of Tom Ballard and Daniele Nardi, the British and Italian climbers who went missing a fortnight ago, have been found on the mountain Nanga Parbat in Pakistan.

Italy’s ambassador to Pakistan, Stefano Pontecorvo, said on Saturday that the search team had confirmed that silhouettes spotted on the mountain “through telescope and pics beyond reasonable doubt” were the bodies of the two men.

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‘A slap in the face’: Barnier sets May on course for Brexit defeat

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Prime minister rebuffed as she pleads for last-ditch EU concessions before MPs vote

Theresa May appears set for a second humiliating defeat when she brings her Brexit deal back to parliament next week, after the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, rebuffed her pleas for last-minute concessions.

The prime minister urged MPs to “get it done” and back her deal, in an impassioned speech at a dockside warehouse in the leave-voting town of Grimsby.

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German academics and authors call for end to ‘gender nonsense’

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Open letter hits back at demand for more gender-neutral nouns

A group of German authors, comedians and academics have added fuel to the flames of an increasingly bad-tempered culture war over language bias by calling for a fightback against “ridiculous linguistic constructions” designed to make German more gender-neutral.

In an open letter published by the Dortmund-based German Language Association, signatories including the philosopher Rüdiger Safranski, novelist Peter Schneider, comedian Dieter Hallervorden and the former head of the country’s domestic intelligence Hans-Georg Maassen, hit back against calls for more gender-neutral generic nouns.

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‘Not everything’s for sale’: Greeks mobilise as new hotels obscure Acropolis views

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Athens’ tourism boom capitalises on building regulations relaxed in the economic crisis

The 10-storey hotel at 5 Falirou street in Athens was always going to stand out. Built to impress, its handsomely modernist wood-panelled facade added a contemporary touch to the streetscape of the otherwise lacklustre popular Makriyanni area beneath the Acropolis.

But as local residents watched it go up over the winter, they became ever more concerned. By February, when it had reached 31.5 metres, the hotel was the tallest building in the neighbourhood and had started to impede what had once been uninterrupted views of the Parthenon and the 5000BC monument’s fortified walls.

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Manchester United fan stabbed in Paris after PSG defeat

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Man, 44, reportedly undergoes emergency operation after attack with ‘large blade’

A Manchester United fan is being treated in hospital in France for a stabbing injury shortly after the English side knocked Paris Saint-Germain out of the Champions League on Wednesday evening.

The Foreign Office said it was in touch with the French authorities over the incident, with reports suggesting the man is undergoing emergency surgery.

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Karen Bradley ‘not fit to be NI secretary’ after Troubles comment, former police ombudsman says – Politics live

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

Amber Rudd has apologised. According to the Press Association, she said she was “mortified at my clumsy language” and has apologised for describing Diane Abbott as “coloured”. (See 2.42pm.)

Amber Rudd, the work and pensions secretary, has referred to Diane Abbott as “coloured”. As Patrick Maguire reports at the Staggers, she used the term in an interview with Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. Speaking about the abuse directed at MPs (see 1.12pm), Rudd said:

It definitely is worse if you’re a woman, and it’s worst of all if you’re a coloured woman. I know that Diane Abbott gets a huge amount of abuse, and I think that’s something we need to continue to call out.

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Italian far-right members produce sexist leaflet for International Women’s Day

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Female ministers and opposition condemn leaflet from League members in southern Italy on the ‘natural role’ of women

Representatives of the far-right League in southern Italy have provoked fury after producing an explicitly sexist leaflet to mark International Women’s Day.

It was intended to be a dedication to women, but the pamphlet instead takes aim at those who “offend women’s dignity” by impeding their “natural role” of “supporting life and the family”.

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‘Police didn’t help me’: Europe ignoring abuse of trafficked Vietnamese children

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Young people taken to UK are exploited in transit through Europe as governments ‘pass the buck’ on protection

Thousands of children trafficked from Vietnam to the UK are being abused and exploited in transit through Europe because governments are “passing the buck” on their protection, research has found.

Victims are typically trafficked through eight countries before arriving in the UK, and at each point are vulnerable to labour and sexual exploitation. Yet governments routinely view Vietnamese children as the responsibility of other states, according to a report published on Thursday by Anti-Slavery International, the Pacific Links Foundation and Every Child Protected Against Trafficking UK (Ecpat UK).

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French cardinal found guilty of covering up sexual abuse

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Philippe Barbarin handed six-month suspended sentence after surprise verdict

A French archbishop has been found guilty of covering up child sexual abuse by a priest in his diocese in yet another crushing blow to the Catholic church’s credibility on the most damaging issue it has faced in recent history.

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence on Thursday for failing to report to the authorities accusations made against the priest.

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Salvini crackdown: bulldozers demolish Italian camp housing 1,500 refugees

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San Ferdinando shanty town cleared in first major eviction after launch of hardline immigration measures

More than 1,500 people are being ousted from the refugee camp at San Ferdinando, in southern Italy, in the largest eviction since Italy’s rightwing populist government’s immigration measures kicked in.

On Wednesday morning, almost 1,000 paramilitary police officers surrounded the 400 shacks where the migrants have lived since the camp was established in 2010, near Gioia Tauro, in Calabria. As people were ushered out clutching their few possessions, bulldozers demolished the shanty town of cardboard and wood huts in a matter of hours.

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